[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: Tata, funny name, un funny topic.

[Reuben Deumling]

Are any of you aware of efforts to build houses today without garages and/or
driveways?
Perhaps that is an angle for bringing this admittedly engaging subject back
to our topic of green building--to sweeping our own doorsteps, so to speak.

I happen to live in a house (and neighborhood) built (up) before there were
cars. The majority of my neighbors don't have either garages or driveways.
We even have steel rings embedded in the curb for tying up our horses.
(People here get defensive about their removal when the City replaces
sections of the now 100+ year old curb :-)). But that doesn't mean the curb
isn't choked with cars--usually one or two per house around here in the
dense inner portions of the city.

When are we as builders, architects, etc. going to take a stand against
building in this assumption of universal (perpetual) automobility? If we
think, or can imagine, that cars will eventually (soon?) become a
liability--an expensive artifact we no longer feel willing or able to keep
fueled--then wouldn't it be wise to start incorporating this into our
buildings? Surely we can imagine (hope) that they will outlast this waning
oil binge, no?

Just a thought.

Reuben Deumling